by DD White
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Before Aquari arrived on Tze-Doldus-2, Begalius, the Dol star-door quanta-optic-nanocode being did finally rid the Dol star-door of the quanta-nanocode virus that the Devasuras had infected its star-door with. It had been what Begalius did for most of Aquari’s journey away from the galactic core that lasted over 62 Earth years. During that time Begalius remained removed from existence in actual reality to hunt down rogue programs that were created on a sub-atomic level in the star-door’s processing and memory circuitry. Begalius hunted the quanta-nanocode virus through a virtual-reality interface program that it created long ago for its own entertainment, called the City of Doldoor.
After its initial encounter with the virus central processing boss-program that almost trapped it in an infinite quanta-nanocode loop, Begalius changed its strategy in the ongoing task of stopping the boss program’s thugs that were relentlessly terrorizing the residents of Doldoor. Quanta-nanocode virus thugs terrorized the local populous of non-essential, essential, and potentially essential star-door programs that just wanted to be left alone to serve their purposes. Star-door programs enjoyed the simulated reality of a beautiful city called Doldoor under the beautiful skies based on the ecosystem of the old planet Doldoria.
One such essential program had been a recently wealthy market speculator program that worked the virtual markets of star-door commodity trading, which controlled the heart of the star-door production functions. Its recent success in the investment market of Doldoor had made Speculator333007 a very wealthy and successful resident of this virtual reality called Doldoor. Speculator333007 had also made a reputation for itself being quite the player in the town’s nighttime party scene. This kind of uninhibited behavior would be sure to attract the attention of the boss program of the quanta-nanocode virus that constantly maintained its grip of fear on the town with drive-by shootings and visits by its big blue hairy gangsters. The boss virus had already relentlessly established itself as the one who controlled the city of Doldoor since the great one Begalius had disappeared, possibly defeated by the boss.
Two such thug programs that assumed the form of giant blue Nephaprican bodies with long Viking-like hair were paying Speculator333007 just such a visit one day in its office that had been recently located at the penthouse of Doldoor’s star-door Trade Center. They were leaning pretty hard on the flamboyantly wealthy speculator program who stood a bit shorter than they were with the body of an Eigalli.
“… Ya see? That’s one of your problems Speculator333007! You don’t seem to understand who we represent here! So’s we are here not just to collect the protection money you’ve been refusing to pay, we’re gonna give you an idea of what we represent too!”
When the thug finished that sentence, the other thug, on cue, picked up an expensive statue of an ancient Doldorian goddess and threw it out the penthouse window. The room had been filled with the explosive sound of shattering glass. Then both thug programs each grabbed an arm of Speculator333007 to heave it up out of its chair, then turned it upside down, each then holding a leg while dangling Speculator333007 out the window over streets that were at least a hundred stories below.
“So why don’t we start by you telling us how you came to be moving in on the bosses territory, perching yourself in this penthouse here like you’re the new king of Doldoor?!?”
Speculator333007 had been effectively terrorized, dangling above the stone streets below. Any Doldoor program could calculate that a fall from this height and distance heralded the impending death of a quanta-nanocode program according to the physics that their programs were subject to. Still, like the successful business mogul that it had been, Speculator333007 kept a cool head in the tense situation. “Well I did really well with my stock in the genetic databanks, which saw more business from the Eigalli than the whole Doldoor market has seen in the last thousand teks. So … ah, I don’t mean your boss program any offense.”
“Enough hot shot! You listen up. You need to tone down your partying entourage every night around town. You’re making the populace become too relaxed and stuff, and that’s bad for the boss’s business. Which brings me to the business of you giving us 60% of your wealth.”
“I … I can probably write you a credit slip right now. If … If I could get back inside the window.”
One of the thugs said, “You know, forget about it. What do you got your wealth invested in? Is it still all that genetic inventory piling up in those warehouses even though we shut that market down?!”
Speculator333007 said, “Ah … Well ya. I’m investing in inventory for the Eigalli who are obviously anxious for those star-door treasures once this temporary shut down is over.”
The thug said, “See there! Right there! You don’t get it! This shut down ain’t temporary! The boss virus is here to stay. Begalius is long gone, and that Doldoorman vigilante guy is also going down soon.”
Speculator333007 looked confused. “But … we’re an Eigalli star-door now. What purpose is served by shutting the star-door down?”
The thug said, “Hey, that ain’t none of your business. Tell you what. Pack up your things cause you ain’t going to be able to afford this penthouse when the boss virus gets finished with your inventory.”
The thugs then pulled Speculator333007 back in from the window. They then turned its desk over and ransacked the office on their way out the door. Speculator333007 shook broken glass off of its suit and stood up once the thugs had finally left. Then its girlfriend, Companion3112114, who had been impersonating a shadow of a table, morphed back into an Eigalli female. She looked over her boyfriend. “They are going to destroy your accumulated inventory in the genetic databank market, probably tonight since they’ve decided to let you know about it now.”
Speculator333007 said, “I know my dear. I kind of was counting on that.”
“Sounds like a job for Doldoorman,” replied Companion3112114.
“That’s right my dear, for by day I am only a disguise as Speculator333007, rich playboy investor, but by night I am Doldoorman, defender of justice, the defenseless, and the City of Doldoor.”
Evidently Begalius likes to tackle impossibly tedious sub-atomic tasks, such as quarantining and deleting a quanta-nanocode virus, in the most personally entertaining way possible. After declaring itself to be Doldoorman to Companion3112114, Speculator333007 then transformed into an Eigalli in green tights with a red mask covering his whole horn and face, which also became a red cape flowing behind a muscular body in green tights with red boots and gloves. A double-v-shaped logo in stylized, (probably Nephaprican,) letters adorned the costume’s chest area. It held a v-shaped shield that looked like a large boomerang that could also serve as a shield. It wore a large utility belt that kind of made it look like a superhero called Handyman-man. Doldoorman then set the shield outside the broken window where it remained suspended in the air outside. It waved to Companion3112114 as it stepped out the window onto the flying boomerang shield and said, “I bid you farewell my dear. There is crime to fight.”
Then Doldoorman flew away into the jagged terrain of a city landscape while standing upright on a flying v-shaped shield. There had been a lot of news recently in the city of Doldoor about a mysterious vigilante crime-fighter program that called itself Doldoorman, which had saved many a Doldoor program from the terrorism of the boss virus by deleting thugs with a deadly deletion pistol.
Outside the picturesque central city of Doldoor the grimier warehouse district where much of the hard dirty work that maintained a healthy virtual economy had been located. Large warehouse structures stored the virtual information of all kinds of star-door products, which arrived here on giant virtual vessels that traveled the misty void of nothing. Between the misty nothing and the something there had been a wide virtual ocean that spread along a long Doldoor shoreline made up of waiting docks and piers. Here the nothing has brought in large vessels filled with genetic databank DNA program
data in the form of large crates and containers. It had been common sense amongst Doldoor citizens that the new owners of the Dol star-door who existed outside the Doldoor microcosm as the objective reality beyond, eagerly awaited more products made from this genetic data. The quanta-nanocode programs that were living virtual lives in the star-door could really only speculate about the existence of objective reality, and the beings who inhabit that concept of their physics. Only the mighty Begalius had been able to cross the void between the two dimensions.
Tonight there would be some different activity in these genetic databank warehouses. Dozens of fossil fuel-powered internal combustion vehicles drove up to each park outside one of the many warehouses. The occupants that got out of the vehicles were Nephapricans who could only be quanta-nanocode virus thugs in a world made mostly of Eagolim, some newly created Eigalli, and Incapricans from the star-door’s days of orbiting the star Dol who all drove much smaller cars. They started unloading a different cargo from the vehicle trunks. The cargo had been boxes of explosives that were sure to sub-atomically disassemble the entire genetic databank cargo that currently filled these warehouses. The resulting explosions would surely return the genetic DNA programs back to the void of nothing from which it had been forged by whatever the vessel programs traveled to. The virtual physics of radioactive fallout would contaminate the city with a spell that only the great Begalius would be able to dispel.
Above, in the night sky there arrived a v-shaped shadow of Doldoorman descending upon the battalion of vehicles parked at the warehouses. It pulled a quarantine pistol from its utility belt and wasted no time with the vehicles that were not yet parked by a warehouse. Doldoorman had been able to fly by each one, sucking out the virus thug contents with its handy pistol. The suddenly empty cars begin to collide with each other as they all come to a halt like a demolition derby that unanimously suddenly ran out of gas.
One of the thugs by a parked vehicle yelled out. “Hey guys! It’s Doldoorman!”
Thugs began running out of the pried-open warehouse doors to greet Doldoorman with quanta-bullet pistols as it landed just in time to hold up its shield to block the bullets fired by the virus thugs.
When the swarm of bullets began to quiet down Doldoorman yelled. “Now its my turn!”
Then the shield began to shoot out expanding web-like nets that wrapped around the groups of thugs that were exposed. Others were behind a vehicle to only occasionally poke up to shoot at Doldoorman’s shield.
In an instant Doldoorman threw the shield, which whorled around haphazardly through the air towards the vehicle, disappearing behind it to emerge from the other side returning to Doldoorman’s awaiting arms.
Doldoorman then walked calmly to the now quiet vehicle to inspect the thugs on the other side that were now all painfully writhing in a chopped-in-half state. Doldoorman mercifully produced the deletion pistol and put them out of their misery.
Inside the warehouse, Doldoorman found some worker programs that were all tied up and guarded by another giant thug crouching in a warehouse built for smaller Incaprican programs. The thug started to plead the second it turned around to see the crimson-caped avenger in green tights who had come to strike fear in the hearts of quanta-nanocode virus programs. “Doldoorman! Please don’t delete me!”
Doldorman said, “Fine then. Go back to your boss program and tell it that its evil deeds will bear it no fruit tonight!”
At that the thug ran out the door without so much as daring to fire a shot at Doldoorman’s shield. As Doldoorman untied the worker programs, one of them in an Incaprican reptile form asked. “Thank you so much for saving us Doldoorman, but why did you let that one go?”
Doldorman gave him a sly smile. “Not to worry citizen of Doldoor. I need one to return as part of my plan to bring the boss of these gangsters to me. Then I can directly confront the cause of these terrorists, which torment Doldoor. When I’m finished with that cause it will be a bright new day and future for Doldoor. I assure you.”
Doldoorman then flew away while standing on its boomerang shield just as reporters and police programs were arriving at the scene. A reporter yelled out to one of the freed worker programs. “Was that the vigilante Doldoorman flying away from here with its red cape waving in the air?”
One of the workers spoke up. “None other than Doldoorman itself reporter program, but I don’t think of it as a vigilante as much as I consider Doldoorman my hero.”
The long-haired boss-virus threw the newspaper across the room after reading the headline “Gangsters Stopped From Destroying Warehouses. City Rests Easier Yet Another Night Thanks To Doldoorman.”
It grabbed a long strand of braided hair on its long beard that it often tugged on when frustrated. “I want this Doldoorman’s masked head brought to me! Understand?!?”
Two thugs that were also in the room appeared nervous in the presence of their angry boss. “Sure boss, but we look all day for it, but don’t find nothin. Then night comes and it finds us.”
The boss program thought of something. “It finds you. That gives me an idea. I’m starting to think this Doldoorman IS Begalius, and we don’t have anything in that quanta-nanocode loop now-a-days.”
“Ah boss,” replied one of the boss’s men. “Begalius is just being quiet in there like you said so before. Problem is the only way to find out is to let it out.”
The boss started stroking its long yellowish beard. “I think I know another way to find out. Who was that Eagolim girlfriend of Begalius, and where is it today? If we kidnap the girlfriend, and Begalius is no longer trapped in our infinite loop then that will bring Begalius to us.”
One of the men said, “That’s genius boss. I think it was called Companion3112113, or something like that.”
Then the boss said, “That’s what you guys need to do. Ya see? Go get this Companion3112113 and we’ll lay a trap for Begalius, or else maybe at least we’ll capture whatever this Doldoorman is.”
Companion3112113 sat in front of a mirror to run an exfoliate pad over her bald light-blue Eagolim skull, and then around the backs of her neck, ears, and shoulders. She still adjusted to a void of purposelessness that Begalius left her with. She knew it would do that after she constructed an Eigalli body for it. She knew Begalius, and Begalius knew Companion3112113. Begalius left her knowing that she had been made strong enough to adjust because it had made her that way. Begalius liked strong engaging women to challenge its intellect, but it also liked trophy girlfriends who looked picturesque by its side. That had been the way Begalius was, and for all the tears now long since dried, Companion3112113 would still make a body for Begalius any time.
Her repetitive mulling on life’s current misery became abruptly interrupted by more of those hairy blue Nephaprican gangsters that had just kicked in the door again. She got up to approach them only to be suddenly pinned by two of them up against the wall next to the mirror.
“Seen your boyfriend Begalius lately lady?”
“Nobody’s seen Begalius,” replied Companion3112113. “Word is it left Doldoor. I ain’t seen Begalius since it took me out to dinner a few weeks ago to break up with me. That had been after the last time you goons kicked in my door.”
That last comment seemed to cause the interrogator to shake it’s head in amazement. “Wait a minute. So you saw Begalius after our last visit. That would be after the infinite loop imprisoned it. So Begalius IS still out there. Boys, bring this woman with us. The boss was right.”
Companion3112113 struggled against their advance. “What are you doing? No! I’m not going …”
“Shut-up lady! This is happening!”
Later, after hearing the news about the Begalius break up event with Compaion3112113, the boss virus approached the quanta-nanocode infinite loop program. Before they were sure they had Begalius trapped in there, but now the boss became sure of something else. The boss hesitated for a bit, as all the pieces started coming t
ogether in its processor, then it turned off the quanta-nanocode infinite loop. There was nothing after that, just a turned off program. It then shook its fist in the air as if cursing the gods. “BEGALIUS!!!”
Later that evening star-door programs sat back to watch the evening news, or some other favorite computer program after a long day before retiring to free up allocated memory caches, and reboot to do it all over again in the morning. Those watching the entertainment devices experienced an unsettling interruption that featured the blond-bearded blue skinned face of the quanta-nanocode boss virus next to a bound and gagged Companion3112113. The virus presented an ultimatum.
“Alright Doldoorman, or should I actually say, Begalius, I’ve got your old girlfriend now. You see? If you ever want to see her again then meet me at the warehouses where you last attacked my men. Time for a showdown!”
Companion3112114 flicked a remote to turn off the message on the entertainment device. She could tell what Speculator333007 contemplated. “It’s a trap you know Begalius. Is she really that important to you my dear?”
Begalius said, “All my ladies are important to me, my love, and I don’t expect my ladies to understand that.”
Companion3112114 thought about both the good and bad sides to that last comment as she watched her boyfriend morph into Doldoorman in an instant and then hop upon its boomerang shield to once again take to the skies and fight crime.
When Doldoorman arrived at the scene of the last warehouse fight there had been a single black luxury vehicle parked outside the warehouse. The door had been wide open to invite our hero into its trap. Doldoorman courageously entered to at last confront the boss virus face-to-face, who could then be found next to Companion3112113 tied to a post on a balcony. The boss virus snarled at Doldoorman through a hairy face that had a braid on one side of its long beard. Its long straight blond hair had also been braided behind its back all the way down past its waist. Over its hulking frame it wore an overcoat with deep pockets.
Even with a gag Companion3112113 still managed to say something through a muffled voice. “Waft out Begawiuf! Ifs a frapf!”
“Ha ha he he heeeeee. Yes Begalius, and you walked right into it.”
The boss virus then kept reaching into its pockets to throw out handfuls of tiny beads that it threw around the surrounding warehouse. When they each hit the ground a thug program would pop into being out of nowhere and began closing in on Doldoorman.
The first wave of thugs had become quickly deleted by Doldoorman’s pistol. It’s shield and pistol continued to delete, and ensnare in nets, multitudes of Nephaprican thugs that kept closing in on Doldoorman only to be pushed back again and again. The boss virus just continued laughing and throwing out gobs and gobs of beads that kept turning into reinforcements. At first Doldoorman remained confident that this strategy to overwhelm would not work, however after over an hour and a half, and over 2,757,300 deleted thugs, they eventually closed in on Doldoorman and brought it down.
Begalius returned to conscious perception to find itself no longer in its red mask and cape. Begalius hung in the air with each arm caught in clamps that were suspending it from above a boiling hot bubbling vat of greenish brown goop. The boss-virus still stood next to the captured ex-girlfriend.
“Welcome back to consciousness star-door quanta-optic-nanocode being,” said the virus boss. “I don’t know how you escaped my infinite loop program, but now you’ll have to escape certain doom. You’re now just in time to either submit your services to my control or perish in the vat of superheated quanta-nanocode tar that will disassemble your programming at least permanently beyond repair. So what will it be Begalius?”
Begalius with defiance replied, “I’ll never surrender this star-door to the likes of a pushy autocratic alien attack virus.”
“Not all star-door functions will perish with you gone quanta-optic-nanocode being. Don’t underestimate the sincerity of my programming to turn this star-door into a mountain of worthless rubble.”
Begalius then started slowly being lowered to the bubbling vat below. It used that moment to implement the same escape program that got it out of the infinite loop trap, only this time Begalius had improved on its control of its own death and resurrection.
Begalius as Doldoorman
In an instant Begalius disappeared from the shackles it had been suspended from, and it reappeared on the platform between 113 and the boss virus. It didn’t have the pistol at that moment so it boxed the boss’s ears, which sent it down on its knees screaming in pain while holding both sides of its head.
Begalius turned to 113 to free her from her ropes. As she spit out her gag she cried, “Behind you Begalius!”
Begalius slowly turned to confront the boss virus that held Begalius’s own boomerang shield. “You will now regret giving me this chance to destroy you with your own shield Doldoorman!”
Begalius just turned to smile at 113 as the boss virus skillfully flung the shield like a giant Frisbee at Begalius and the ex-girlfriend program. The shield wobbled in the air toward Begalius like a boomerang while Begalius watched it with interest and explained. “I made that shield special for me as a trap for you Nephaprican virus. Only I can use the shield or else it will turn on the user.”
The shield just circled clear around both Begalius and the pole that 113 had been tied to, and returned to the boss virus to slice it in half on the edge of the platform. The legs just did a shaky dance for awhile on the ledge while the boss’s topside fell into the superheated quanta-nanocode tar below to permanently disassemble into sub-atomic particles and virtual particle energies.
After that, there would indeed be a new day and future for the city of Doldoor. That had been how Begalius rid the Dol star-door of a viscous quanta-nanocode virus that had been designed to destroy the star-door itself. Begalius promised Companion3112114 that it had been only a temporary separation, and that she was still its girlfriend. To ease the blow Speculator333007 did transfer all its wealth into 114’s hands. Companion3112113 took comfort in the fact that Begalius did come to rescue her from certain doom, and that they would always remain good friends in the city of Doldoor where Begalius often liked to travel to for the sake of indulging a virtual-ego’s self-absorbed quanta-optic-nanocoded imagination.
Somewhere else in the many layers of realities that made up the computer reality of a star-door, the Gardener beheld a bud beginning to bloom on one of the fifteen branches of the Tree of Star-doors. The Dol door would be about to historically bloom a potential connection with the Poa door after a span of time that amounted to billions of Earth years. As the Gardener began to curve its lips into a triumphant smile, Begalius at last spit forth from the branch, and appeared again to the Gardener.
“Okay! I finally got that computer system debugged. All hostile programming is now isolated and deleted. That took a long time. I often wonder if I’ll ever be able to make computers work any faster.”
The gardener appeared hooded like a monk with just its smile visible, which still beamed away. “This is cause for some celebration first, before you return to the objective reality beyond old friend.”
“It is indeed Gardener. Let us now celebrate.” Begalius and the Gardener held a grand celebration with many guests in a virtual reality corner of the Dol star-door. It had a grand party in a virtual reality before Begalius finally awoke from its fitful star-door dream that lasted almost 62 Earth years.